Is dry firing bad for your marker?

Here the deal, I started playing paintball a while back and was always told to avoid dry firing and it was bad for the marker. So until recently I have always bought used guns and never needed to worry about breaking in a marker, therefore I have recently purchased a brand new in box Dye NT11 and I wanted to see if i can break it in with dry firing so that i can go through the breaking in process faster. In my mind i can't think of a reason other than wear on o rings from dry firing, but maybe somebody knows if dry firing is actually bad for a marker. So is dry firing really that bad for a marker and would this be a good way to break in a new marker. Thank you.

It is worse for poppits than for spoolies, but I would recommend against it. Go grab a cheap case from walmart and run it in your backyard to save the bolt. Think of it like a bow, you can dry fire them, and an arrow weighs almost nothing, but dry firing a bow can break the limbs because the bow is built to send a projectile towards a target, same as a paintball marker

Here the deal, I started playing paintball a while back and was always told to avoid dry firing and it was bad for the marker. So until recently I have always bought used guns and never needed to worry about breaking in a marker, therefore I have recently purchased a brand new in box Dye NT11 and I wanted to see if i can break it in with dry firing so that i can go through the breaking in process faster. In my mind i can't think of a reason other than wear on o rings from dry firing, but maybe somebody knows if dry firing is actually bad for a marker. So is dry firing really that bad for a marker and would this be a good way to break in a new marker. Thank you.

Jack Woods says "no," case closed!

Avoid it. Shooting once or twice to make sure your marker is working and gassed up is one thing, but trying to break in your marker without paint is a bad idea.

Everything moves faster when dry firing, your bolt slams harder against the stops, there's no back pressure aiding to close valves when they should, etc. I agree with the guy above that said to just buy a case or two of paint from wallmart, or a pod full of reballs and run it through your marker.

we have a couple of tests on this, sadly punworkspaintball.com is down right now.

break in occurs in the first 500 shotsdry firing is not the same as normal shooting, i don't think its really dangerous, but it is different forces your putting on the internals.

does this 500 shot count apply to all guns, spools and poppets? I saw you guys came up with this number testing on a G6R. Im curious about a Clone GT. And also how does this number apply *if at all* to different types of orings? (buna, polyurethane, viton)

1.) You're slightly wearing down the o-rings
2.) You're slightly wearing down the surface the o-ring travels on

Spool vs. Poppet doesn't really matter, since each o-ring in the system is getting the same number of cycles.

As for it being not as bad on spool valved markers, the "backpressure" generated by the paintball actually cushions the motion of the bolt in most spool valved markers. Obviously this varies from marker to marker - for example the effect is significant for something like a Matrix, but not so much for something like a hollowpoint Ion which has a bumper built in.

Might as well make a list:

Significant:
PMR
Ion (stock and similar)
Matrix

Not significant:
Shocker/Luxe
Ion (hollowpoint)
DP spools

Regardless of all this, it's bad for your detents, almost no matter what you shoot.

we have a couple of tests on this, sadly punworkspaintball.com is down right now.

break in occurs in the first 500 shotsdry firing is not the same as normal shooting, i don't think its really dangerous, but it is different forces your putting on the internals.

does this 500 shot count apply to all guns, spools and poppets? I saw you guys came up with this number testing on a G6R. Im curious about a Clone GT. And also how does this number apply *if at all* to different types of orings? (buna, polyurethane, viton)

thanks,Al

that was both with the g6 and the NT.

i wouldn't take that number has rock solid fact, i could be off by as much as much as 100% depending on gun design. but the point is, its not 10-100 cases to wear a gun in. its during the first day of play no doubt.

The ultimate truth in paintball is that the interaction between the gun and the player is far and away the largest factor in accuracy, consistency, and reliability.